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“...
alive together with Christ ... raised up with Him ... seated with
Him...."
~ Ephesians 2:5-6
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Sitting
with Him
Teresa
sat on the front porch with her dad. He suffered from ALS (Lou
Gehrig's Disease) -- a debilitating and degenerative disease. He could
not speak but they would sit there and rock on the swing together. And
in the silence, he imparted warmth and love to her; apart from words
and apart from actions -- just with his gentle, unassuming, reassuring
presence.
How
often does the Father desire just the same from us?
We
have grown so accustomed to speech and action, to effort and
achievement, to competition and accomplishment, to success and bravado,
to earning and winning, that stillness has slipped from both our
vocabulary and our experience.
The
porch swing sits idle.
When
the apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians he uses a little word that we
tend to undervalue: with.
Paul
describes the grace of God in powerful terms -- saving us and resurrecting
us to new life. But that new life is a "with" life. We've
been made alive together "with
Christ" and raised "with
Him" and seated "with
Him" in the heavenlies.
We'd
like to re-write it just a tad. We'd generally prefer to simply be made
alive, raised, and seated. No "with."
But
"with" is a gospel word. It signifies the very intention of
the Cross. It expresses the eternal purpose of God. He does not redeem
us to build an army of workers, but to draw us back into His Presence;
the Presence from which Adam and Eve fled.
"With"
seems to only have value when we are "working
with," "competing with," or "speaking
with," not just "being with." But perhaps if we
understood the degenerative disease we all carry, called sin, we'd sit
more humbly, more silently, and more appreciatively with the
Father.
Jesus
cued us to this reality when He said, "I am with you always,
even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20) Matthew closes his
gospel with that all-important statement. Not "I toil with
you always" or "I speak with you always" but "I am
with you always."
Just
being together.
Perhaps
this week, you'll find refreshment and assurance just sitting down on
the front porch swing for a while with Him. I know He'd enjoy it.
In
HOPE –
David
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